United Autosports Make It 1 – 2 in LMGT3 Qualifying
Antonio Giovinazzi put the #51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P on pole for the opening round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship after challenging qualifying sessions which saw car struggling to get heat into tyres and the shock exit of both Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s in the first Hypercar qualifying session.
In the Hyperpole session that followed, Giovinazzi lapped the 5.419 kms of the Losail International Circuit in 1:38.559, .136 seconds quicker than Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 to claim pole position for the opening round. Third quickest was the sister #50 Ferrari in the hands of Antonio Fuoco who put on a 1:38.692 on his 5th lap of six.
The Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs will start the Qatar 1812 km from 4th and 5th on the grid, Alex Lynn setting a 1:38.723 in the #12 car while teammate Sébastien Bourdais was .313 seconds back in the #38 Cadillac.
Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW qualified 6th followed by the sole Toyota in the top ten; the #7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid driven by Nyck De Vries who lapped in 1:39.279. Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari qualified 8th followed by Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine and Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot.
“Everybody in the team has done fantastic job working to improve the car, and to be on pole is a great achievement,” said Giovinazzi. “I was surprised by how much the wind charged at the start of the session and how tricky that made it, but everything came together at the end. I gave it everything in the final sector – I was on the limit – and to take pole on the last lap was really cool.”
The preceding qualifying session had seen the two Ferraris finish at the top of the timing screens with Giovinazzi lapping .022 seconds quicker than Fuoco to go quickest with a 1:38.587. The session had seen the majority of the Hypercar field taking multiple laps to get sufficient tyre temperature to push for a qualifying time. Neither of the Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s were able to make it through to Hyperpole with Julien Andlauer missing out on a top ten time by .020 seconds, Jean-Eric Vergne lapping the #93 Peugeot in 1:39.926.
Neither Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries made it through to Hyperpole but Harry Tincknell’s time of 1:41.766 in the #007 car was the quickest that either Aston Martin had achieved in the preceding three free practice sessions.
In LMGT3 United Autosports made it a 1 – 2 with their pair of McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evos with Sean Gelael lapping the #95 car in 1:54.239, just under a quarter of a second quicker than teammate Sébastien Baud in the sister #59 car.
Akkodis ASP Team continued their competitive start to the 2025 season by setting the third quickest time in the LMGT3 Hyperpole session after Finn Gehrsitz lapped the team’s #78 Lexus RC F LMGT3 in 1:54.484.
Both Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3s made it through to Hyperpole with Francesco Castellacci qualifying the #54 Ferrari in 4th followed by Simon Mann in the #21 car.
“I haven’t really done qualifying since my Formula 2 days five years ago so I was a bit rusty,” said Sean Gelael. “Darren (Leung – teammate) produced a great lap in Q1 which then gave me the opportunity to do the same in Hyperpole. The United Autosports guys put in so much effort throughout last year and over the winter and that work is paying off.
“It’s obviously a ten-hour race so we will need to be vigilant but we’re off to a good start.”
The lights go out for the Qatar 1812 km at 14.00 local time.
